Key focus for ICT at the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) in 2010 is “value for money”, according to CIO Nigel Prince. This value will be realised in a major IM transformation project — incorporating both consolidation and virtualisation — that will move the Ministry from its legacy environment to the next generation of IaaS technology. ICT will also be used to strategically support key business initiatives, including the Joint Border Management System, FarmsOnLine, National Animal Identification and Tracking, along with the Emissions Trading Scheme.

With the FarmsOnLine project, MAF will be looking to create a data management centre, with the intention of supporting accurate and up to date data around rural properties, including farm location, ownership, management and stock/crop data. The centre will proactively update information on 50,000 properties annually, as part of the information maintenance programme. Information collected through the programme will be restricted to use under the Biosecurity Act. The Joint Border Management System will be a replacement information management system designed to meet the joint border management needs of both MAF and NZ Customs Service, as well as better support the needs of related government agencies such as the Immigration Service and NZ Food Safety Authority. The significant multi-year project, valued at more than $100 million, was given provisional approval pending the 2010 Budget.

Additional projects in 2010 will include the proactive alignment with Whole of Government initiatives, as well as ongoing investments to support the business in business intelligence, financial management information systems, cloud computing and business-continuity technologies.

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